Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich (born February 21, 1947) is an American celebrity chef, television host, author, and restaurateur. Specializing in Italian and Italian-American cuisine, Bastianich has been a regular contributor to public television cooking shows since 1998.
Born in the allied-occupied Pula, Matticchio Bastianich's family emigrated to the United States when she was nine years old during the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus. In 2014, she launched her fifth television series, Lidia's Kitchen. She owns or has owned several Italian restaurants in the U.S. in partnership with her daughter Tanya Bastianich Manuali and her son Joe Bastianich, including Felidia (founded with her ex-husband, Felice), Del Posto (closed and sold in 2021), and Becco in Manhattan; Lidia's Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh (closed in 2019); and Lidia's Kansas City in Kansas City, Missouri. She also is a partner in Eataly locations in New York City, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Silicon Valley, Dallas, and São Paulo, Brazil.
Early life Lidia Giuliana Matticchio Bastianich was born on February 21, 1947, in Pula, Zone A Allied military administration, just before the city was assigned to Yugoslavia in September 1947 (and which is now part of Istria County, Croatia). She is the daughter of Erminia Pavichievaz and Vittorio Matticchio. Until 1956, she lived with her family in Yugoslavia, before her mother, her brother Franco and herself fled to Trieste, Italy, on the pretense of visiting their sick aunt Nina, who was a personal chef. This matched what many other Istrian Italians did during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus. Soon after, her father joined them in Trieste after he crossed the border into Italy at night. After Nina could only provide temporary shelter, Bastianich and her family became refugees at Risiera di San Sabba. According to Bastianich in a Public Television documentary, although a wealthy Triestine family hired her mother as a cook–housekeeper and her father as a limousine driver, they remained residents of the refugee camp. Two years later, their displaced persons application was granted to emigrate from Italy to the United States. In 1958, Bastianich and her family reached the United States, arriving in North Bergen, New Jersey, and later settling in Astoria, Queens, in New York City.
Bastianich gives credit for the family's new roots in the United States to their sponsor, Catholic Relief Services:
Bastianich started working part-time at the age of 14, during which she briefly worked at the Astoria bakery, Walken's Bakery, owned by Christopher Walken's parents. After graduating from high school, she began to work full-time at a pizzeria on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Career In the 1960s Lidia worked at Walken's Bakery on Broadway in Astoria, Queens NY which was owned by Christopher Walken's family.
From Queens to Manhattan (1971–1981)
In 1971, the Bastianiches opened their first restaurant, the tiny Buonavia, meaning "good road", in the Forest Hills section of Queens, with Bastianich as its hostess. They created their restaurant's menu by copying recipes from the most popular and successful Italian restaurants of the day, and they hired the best Italian-American chef that they could find.
After a brief break to deliver her second child Tanya, in 1972 Bastianich began training as the assistant chef at Buonavia, gradually learning enough to cook popular Italian dishes on her own, after which the couple began adding traditional Istrian dishes to their menu.
The success of Buonavia led to the opening of the second restaurant in Queens, Villa Secondo. It was here that Bastianich gained the attention of local food critics and started to give live cooking demonstrations, a prelude to her future career as a television cooking show hostess.
In 1981, Bastianich's father died, and the family sold their two Queens restaurants and purchased a small Manhattan brownstone containing a pre-existing restaurant on the East Side of Manhattan near the 59th Street Bridge to Queens. They converted it into what would eventually become their flagship restaurant, Felidia (a contraction of "Felice" and "Lidia"). After liquidating nearly every asset they had to cover $750,000 worth of renovations, Felidia finally opened to near-universal acclaim from their loyal following of food critics, including The New York Times, which gave Felidia three stars. One of Felidia's chefs was not Italian. He was Puerto-Rico-born David Torres, known at the restaurant as Davide'. He died of throat cancer in 1996.
Expansion
Although Lidia and Felice sent their two children to college without expectations that either would go into the restaurant business, Joseph, who had frequently done odd jobs for his parents at Felidia, gave up his newly launched career as a Wall Street bond trader;Passing the Toque: For a New Generation, Hospitality Is Destiny, Suzanne Hamlin, published January 10, 1996; retrieved February 1, 2008. in 1993, he convinced his parents to partner with him to open Becco (Italian for "peck, nibble, savor") in the Theater District in Manhattan. Like Felidia, Becco was an immediate success and led to the opening of additional restaurants outside New York City, including Lidia's Kansas City in 1998, and Lidia's Pittsburgh in 2001.
In 1993, Julia Child invited Bastianich to tape an episode of her Public Television series Julia Child: Cooking With Master Chefs, which featured acclaimed chefs from around the U.S., preparing dishes in their own home kitchens. The guest appearance gave Bastianich confidence and determination to expand the Bastianich family's own commercial interests.
By the late 1990s, Bastianich's restaurants had evolved into a truly family-owned and operated enterprise. Bastianich's mother, Erminia Motika, maintained the large garden behind the family home, from which Bastianich chose ingredients to use in recipe development. Joe was the chief sommelier of the restaurant group, in addition to branching out into his own restaurant line. Bastianich's daughter Tanya Bastianich Manuali used her PhD in Italian art history as the foundation for a travel agency partnership with her mother called Esperienze Italiane, through which Tanya and friend Shelly Burgess Nicotra, who was the Executive Producer of Bastianich's television series and head of PR at Lidia's Italy, offered tours throughout Italy. Tanya's husband, attorney Corrado Manuali, became the restaurant group's chief legal counsel.Cast of Characters of Lidia's Family Table ; retrieved January 31, 2008.
In 2010, Bastianich and her son partnered with Oscar Farinetti to open Eataly, a food emporium in Manhattan that is devoted to the food and culinary traditions of Italy. Bastianich offers culinary and gastronomy classes to the public at Eataly's school, La Scuola. Eataly's motto is "We sell what we cook, and we cook what we sell". Eataly is now in Chicago and São Paulo, Brazil. They opened a second store in New York at the World Trade Center in Manhattan in 2016 and another one in Boston the same year. Recent openings include Eataly in Los Angeles in 2017, in Las Vegas in 2018, in Toronto in 2019, Silicon Valley in 2022, and Dallas.
The fall of 2010 also marked the debut of Lidia's Kitchen, an exclusive line of commercial cookware, and serving ware for QVC. Along with her daughter Tanya, and son-in-law Corrado Manuali, Bastianich launched Nonna Foods as a platform to distribute an array of both existing and new LIDIA'S food products. Nonna Foods has 11 varieties of sauces (including two USDA Certified Organic sauces) available nationwide. Together with her son Joseph, Bastianich produces wine at Bastianich Vineyard in Friuli Venezia Giulia and La Mozza Vineyard in Maremma, Italy.
Television (1998–present)
In 1998, Public Television offered Bastianich her own television series; the show became Lidia's Italian Table. It established her as a fixture in the network's line-up of cooking shows. Since then she has hosted additional public television series, including Lidia's Family Table, Lidia's Italy, Lidia's Italy in America, and Lidia's Kitchen.
She also hosts a series of hour-long Public Television specials called Lidia Celebrates America, which premiered in 2011 with Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday Tables & Traditions. In the series, Bastianich celebrates the diversity of cultures across the United States and explores the American immigrant experience. The following special, Lidia Celebrates America: Weddings – Something Borrowed, Something New, aired in 2012; Lidia Celebrates America: Freedom & Independence in 2013; Lidia Celebrates America: Life's Milestones in 2013; Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday Tables and Traditions in 2015; Lidia Celebrates America: Holiday for Heroes in 2016; Lidia Celebrates America: Homegrown Heroes in 2017; Lidia Celebrates America: A Heartland Holiday Feast in 2018; Lidia Celebrates America: The Return of the Artisans in 2019; Lidia Celebrates America: Eating in With Lidia in 2020; Lidia Celebrates America: A Salute to First Responders in 2020; Lidia Celebrates America: Overcoming the Odds in 2021 and Lidia Celebrates America: Flavors that Define Us in 2023. Bastianich ends each episode of her show with an invitation to join her and her family for a meal, Tutti a tavola a mangiare! (Italian for "Everyone to the table to eat").
For the 2010 holiday season, her new television production company, Tavola Productions, created an animated holiday children's special for Public Television "Lidia's Christmas Kitchen: Nonna Tell Me a Story" to go along with the book by the same title that was written by Bastianich.
In 2013, Bastianich returned to Public Television with Lidia's Kitchen, a 26-part series produced by Tavola Productions. The tenth season premiered in October 2022. Lidia's Kitchen Season 11 launches in October 2023.
Among Bastianich's television show appearances, she participated as a celebrity judge on MasterChef USA, an adaptation of the BBC MasterChef (UK TV series) in 2000. Her son, Joseph Bastianich, would later go on to star as a celebrity judge on the Gordon Ramsay version of MasterChef. Bastianich has also appeared on the Italian television show Junior MasterChef Italia in 2014 and 2015 for Season 1 and Season 2. In 2016 and 2017, she was a judge for the Italian television show, La Prova del Cuoco. In 2020, alongside son Joe Bastianich and Antonino Cannavacciuolo, she was a judge on the cooking competition show on Sky, Family Food Fight. In 2021, Bastianich co-starred along with Italian chef Anna Moroni in Senti che fame! Nonna pensaci tu which aired on Discovery+ in Italy.
Books (1990–present)
Bastianich has authored several cookbooks to accompany her television series: La Cucina di Lidia Lidia's Family Table Lidia's Italian-American Kitchen Lidia's Italian Table Lidia's Italy Lidia Cooks from the Heart of Italy Lidia's Italy in America Lidia's Favorite Recipes Lidia's Commonsense Italian Cooking Nonna Tell Me A Story Nonna's Birthday Surprise Lidia's Egg-Citing Farm Adventure Lidia's Mastering the Art of Italian Cuisine Lidia's Celebrate Like an Italian My American Dream: A Life of Love, Family, and Food Felidia, Recipes from My Flagship Restaurant Lidia's a Pot, a Pan, and a Bowl: Simple Recipes for Perfect Meals Lidia's From Our Family Table to Yours
Awards and honors
(1987) Recipient of Woman of the Year/Innovation Award, Restaurant Category, Women's Institute of the Center for Food and Hotel Management (1993) Nominated for "Best Chef in New York" by the James Beard Foundation; Felidia (1994) Nominated for "Best Chef in New York" by the James Beard Foundation; Felidia (1996) Nominated for "Best Chef in New York" by the James Beard Foundation; Felidia (1996) Recipient of "Who's Who of Food & Beverage in America" James Beard Award (1997) Nominated for "Best Chef in New York" by the James Beard Foundation; Felidia